John Howell III came from the news side and became GM at WPXI Pittsburgh. (John also has one of the great local TV emails around; it begins ‘extvgm’.) His son Jay, a.k.a. John Howell IV, was named GM of KRBC Abilene/KACB San Angelo at the age of 31 before shifting to WPRI.

Jay credits his fast rise to growing up watching his father dissect local news.

“When you watch television with a father who’s a news director, you don’t watch like other people,” Jay says. “He’s taking notes, he’s making comments, he’s swearing. I didn’t realize it at the time, but growing up in that environment really helped me.”